Contributor.

Paul GarnettDirector of Affordable Access Initiatives at Microsoft

Paul Garnett is the director of Affordable Access Initiatives at Microsoft, where he focuses on new technologies and business models that will enable billions more people to affordably get online. Garnett and his team work with internet access providers and other partners to deploy new last-mile access technologies, cloud-based services and applications, and business models that reduce the cost and improve the quality of internet access.

Throughout his career, Garnett has consistently been drawn to the challenge of universal access. Before joining Microsoft, Garnett spent 17 years in Washington, D.C., where he focused on telecommunications law and policy. As Assistant Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, at CTIA-The Wireless Association®, he represented the U.S. wireless industry before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the U.S. Congress. Garnett also worked at the FCC in its Wireline Competition Bureau leading complex rulemakings on universal service and intercarrier compensation regulations. Garnett was an associate in Swidler Berlin’s telecommunications practice and a consultant at Price Waterhouse advising on the privatization of state-owned telecommunications and utility monopolies.

Garnett earned his bachelor’s degree in political science at Union College and his law degree at the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law.

Posts by Paul Garnett

Microsoft’s Affordable Access Initiative is providing grants to internet access and related services companies and startups reaching underserved communities in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and North America. In June, the tech giant announced the second year of grantees. Paul Garnett, senior director of the Affordable Access Initiative at Microsoft, explores how internet connectivity can have a ripple effect.

New Sun Road designed, built and operated the first 24/7 metered electricity service on an off-grid island chain in the southern part of Uganda. It's exactly the type of small business – providing a critical service, creating jobs – that Microsoft aims to support with its Affordable Access Initiative. Applications are open for a new round of grants through the initiative, and will be accepted through Jan. 31.

To accelerate the democratization of affordable and robust internet access, Microsoft this week announced 12 new partnerships with social enterprises. Paul Garnett, Director of Affordable Access Initiatives at Microsoft, writes that the partnerships will support market-based innovation through seed grants, a network of peers, mentors and resources, and commercial partnerships, in addition to engaging the communities in which they work.